The European Commission has called for extended energy saving supplier obligations that could ultimately lead to a new market in energy efficiency certificate trading and a doubling of public building refurbishment rates.

The European Commission’s low-carbon roadmap to 2050 has called for the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2020 to be raised to 25%. Controversially, it suggests achieving this by holding back allowances in the EU emissions trading scheme, and increasing energy efficiency.

The coalition has set out its vision for moving the UK to a low-carbon economy, committing to specific timescales for policy delivery by its key departments. But there is as yet little detail on policies or a quantitative breakdown of UK carbon budgets by sector and departmental responsibility.